Amanpour was born in the West London suburb ofEaling, the daughter of Mohammad Taghi Amanpour (Iranian) and Anne Patricia Hill (British).[1][4] Her father wasShia Muslim and her motherRoman Catholic.[1][5]
In 1983, Amanpour was hired by CNN on the foreign desk inAtlanta, Georgia, as an entry-level desk assistant. During her early years as a correspondent, she was given her first major assignment covering theIran–Iraq War, followed by a transfer in 1986 to Eastern Europe to report on thefall of European communism.[14] In 1989, she was assigned to work inFrankfurt am Main,West Germany, where she reported on the democratic revolutions sweeping Eastern Europe at the time. By 1990, she served as a correspondent for CNN's New York bureau.[15]
FollowingIraq's occupation of Kuwait in 1990, Amanpour's reports of thePersian Gulf War brought her wide notice. Thereafter, she reported from theBosnian war and other conflict zones. While in Bosnia, she interviewedSerb generalRatko Mladic, who would later be convicted ofgenocide. Because of her emotional delivery fromSarajevo during theSiege of Sarajevo, viewers and critics questioned her professional objectivity, claiming that many of her reports were unjustified and favored theBosnian Muslims, to which she replied:
"There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral, you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn't mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing."[16]
Amanpour gained a reputation for being fearless during the Gulf and Bosnian wars for reporting from conflict areas.[17]
From 1996 to 2005, she was contracted by60 Minutes creatorDon Hewitt to file four to five in-depth international news reports a year as a special contributor. These reports garnered her aPeabody Award in 1998[22] (she had earlier been awarded one in 1993[23]). Hewitt's successorJeff Fager terminated her contract.
On 9 October 1994,Stephen Kinzer ofThe New York Times criticized Amanpour's general coverage of the Bosnian War. Kinzer quoted a colleague's description of Amanpour as she reported on a terroristbombing in theMarkale marketplace of the Bosnian city ofSarajevo:
[Christiane Amanpour] was sitting inBelgrade when that marketplace massacre happened, and she went on air to say that theSerbs had probably done it. There was no way she could have known that. She assumed an omniscience that no journalist has.[24]
Amanpour has responded to the criticism leveled on her reporting from the war in the former Yugoslavia for "lack of neutrality", stating:
Some people accused me of being pro–Muslim in Bosnia, but I realized that our job is to give all sides an equal hearing, but in cases of genocide, you can't just be neutral. You can't just say, "Well, this little boy was shot in the head and killed in besieged Sarajevo and that guy over there did it, but maybe he was upset because he argued with his wife." No, there is no equality, and we had to tell the truth.[25]
In 2019, retired commander of theIslamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Saeed Qassemi spoke of his and his comrades' participation as combatants in the Bosnian War, with him having been disguised as staff of theIranian Red Crescent Society. Shortly after, in April 2019, Qassemi claimed that Amanpour had uncovered their deception.[26]
On 18 March 2010, Amanpour announced she would leave CNN for ABC News, where she would anchorThis Week. She said, "I'm thrilled to be joining the incredible team at ABC News. Being asked to anchorThis Week in the superb tradition started byDavid Brinkley is a tremendous and rare honor, and I look forward to discussing the great domestic and international issues of the day. I leave CNN with the utmost respect, love, and admiration for the company and everyone who works here. This has been my family and shared endeavor for the past 27 years, and I am forever grateful and proud of all that we have accomplished."[27] She hosted her first broadcast on 1 August 2010.
On 13 December 2011, ABC announced Amanpour would be leaving her post as anchor of ABC News'This Week on 8 January 2012 and returning to CNN International, where she had previously worked for 27 years and maintained a reporting role at ABC News.[31]
A day later on 14 December 2011, in statements by ABC and CNN, it was announced that in a "unique arrangement", Amanpour would begin hosting a program on CNN International in 2012 while continuing at ABC News as a global affairs anchor.[32]
It was later revealed that in the spring of 2012, CNN International would refresh its line-up, putting the interview showAmanpour back on air.[33] On-air promotions said she would return to CNN International on 16 April. Her 30-minute New York-recorded show – to be screened twice an evening – would mean that the US parent network'sPiers Morgan Tonight interview show would be "bumped" out of its 9:00 p.m. (Central European Time) slot to midnight (CET).[34]
On 9 September 2013, the show and staff were moved to the CNN International office and the show is currently being produced and broadcast from London.
On 7 January 2015, Amanpour made headlines during a "Breaking News" segment on CNN by referring to the Islamic extremists who murdered the 12 journalists atCharlie Hebdo as "activists": "On this day, these activists found their targets, and their targets were journalists. This was a clear attack on the freedom of expression, on the press, and on satire".[35]
On 28 January 2019, Christiane Amanpour and Mary Ellen Schmider and Manfred Philipp gave the Fulbright Prize for International Understanding to the German ChancellorAngela Merkel.[36]
On 12 November 2020, Amanpour compared theTrump administration to theNazis andKristallnacht, saying, "It was the Nazis' warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity, and in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, knowledge, history and truth. After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, theBiden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth." The Israeli government, along with some Jewish groups, called for Amanpour to apologize for this comparison. Israeli Diaspora Affairs MinisterOmer Yankelevich urged an "immediate and public apology" for "belittling of the immense tragedy of the Holocaust."[37][38][39]
In February 2024, CNN employees, including Amanpour, confronted network executives over CNN's biased coverage ofIsrael'swar in Gaza.[40]
In September 2022, Amanpour terminated a scheduled TV interview with President of IranEbrahim Raisi in New York City during theseventy-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly, following a last–minute demand that she wear aChador headscarf while filming.[41] Amanpour vehemently responded that she could not agree to the "unprecedented and unexpected condition" and later reflected on the controversial situation, declaring that:
Here inNew York City, or anywhere else outside of Iran, I have never been asked by any Iranian president—and I have interviewed every single one of them since 1995—either inside or outside of Iran, never been asked to wear a head scarf.[42][43][44]
In May 2018, it was announced that Amanpour would permanently replaceCharlie Rose onPBS after he was fired due to allegations of sexual misconduct.[45] Her new program,Amanpour & Company, premiered on PBS on 10 September 2018.[46] From the time of Charlie Rose's departure from PBS until the new show premiered,Amanpour was aired on PBS stations, asAmanpour on PBS.
In 2020, Amanpour hosted the PBS daily programAmanpour & Company from her home in England due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[47] Her program continues to be seen on television on PBS at many stations in various areas of the US, including at least four TV stations in the greater Los Angeles region of southern California.
In April 2023, Amanpour misspoke and said that Israeli shooting victimsLucy, Maia and Rina Dee had been killed in a "shootout" instead of a "shooting," while the family was travelling in a car in theWest Bank. Amanpour contacted the father of the family to personally apologise for misspeaking and subsequently did the same on her show.[48][49]
In October 2025, Amanpour issued an apology for comments she made earlier that day regarding Israeli hostages recently released after over two years of captivity by Hamas. In her original remarks, Amanpour suggested the hostages "were probably being treated better than the average Gazan" because Hamas used them as bargaining chips, which sparked significant backlash. She later expressed regret, calling her comments "insensitive and wrong."[50]
She became pregnant at the age of 41, and their only son was born inColumbia Hospital for Women on 27 March 2000. Having lived in London since 2000, they moved to New York City in 2010, where they rented an apartment inManhattan'sUpper West Side.[57] In May 2013, Rubin announced that the family would return to London to work on several projects,[58] and in October of the same year, Amanpour stated that she and her husband would be relocating to London permanently.[59] In 2018, Amanpour and Rubin announced they were divorcing.[60]
Amanpour was a relative by marriage of Commander–GeneralNader Jahanbani of theImperial Iranian Air Force for nearly twenty years until he was executed by the Islamic Revolutionaries in 1979 and of his younger brotherKhosrow Jahanbani, who was married to PrincessShahnaz Pahlavi. Amanpour's uncle, Captain Nasrallah Amanpour, was married to the younger sister of Khosrow and Nader.[61]
In June 2021, Amanpour announced she had been diagnosed withovarian cancer, had "major successful surgery to remove it", and would undergo several months ofchemotherapy.[62] In October 2025, Amanpour revealed that her ovarian cancer had returned.[63][64]
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